Saturday, July 24, 2010

Special Guests

We had some wonderfully special guests stop by the house for a quick visit this week! Hubby's nephew and his family were driving through our area while on vacation and we were so blessed that they could spend some time with us.

We don't get to see them often enough and had not in fact even met the youngest member of their family and she is six years old! Needless to say, it was long overdue and we decided to make the most of it!

Here are their girls, who I have to say are just lovely. In a house full of boys, it was such a pleasure to have a little girl power going on!

Their oldest daughter we will call LT. She is precious and although LT doesn't stand for Lovely Teenager, IT SHOULD. The little one we will call Red Bull. That one is a fireball - AND CUTE. My goodness, give me five of her please.

They arrived pretty late on Thursday so it was just enough time to catch up a little and let the kids get acquainted. Red Bull took to Harold like a bee to honey. He was so great with her - although after about an hour she looks at him and says "Harold, I am bored." He was struggling to keep her entertained.

We stayed up too late and got up pretty early to do some touring around Austin.

The first activity of the day was taking the Austin Duck Tour.

We did a Duck Tour in Boston and it was a unique and fun way to see a lot of the city in just a short amount of time. We thought it would be great way for them to check out Austin.

We were ready to get on board.

Our driver Bob was good. Pointed out lots of interesting sites.

The capital.

The infamous UT Tower.

At about the 45 minute mark of the tour, we went into Lake Austin and our vehicle turned into a boat. Bob made a huge splash going in.

We drove around the lake and checked out some of the fabulous homes on the lake.

The kiddos even got a turn at driving the Duck while in the water!

Back on land, we were all hungry so we headed to Hut's Hamburgers.

It is an old Austin landmark with pretty good burgers.

You take a picture of the sign and I will take a picture of you!

Hubby trying to work his charm on Red Bull.

She was not easily amused.

We were walking back to our car in the hot afternoon sun and a photo shoot broke out. Hubby started it off.

The Harold got in the game.

Look at my little Chip - isn't he a goof ball!

A bigger goof ball.

The biggest goof ball of them all. I wish I knew how to hijack his Facebook page so I could post this as his profile picture. Ha, ha, ha! That just makes me laugh.

Hubby's nephew and the Daddy to these sweet girls will be called A/C. He jumped in on the photo shoot. Isn't he cute? For reals.

Their sweet family! Oh, we are going to call mom Thrasher. It's a bird thing. She will understand!

After our hot Duck tour and lunch we stopped by and picked up some awesome cupcakes and headed back to the house to swim. Look at these cousins having fun. Who would ever know they don't see each other regularly?

Lots of laughs shared by all of us.

After swimming we went back to the house to chill for a while! Look at this girl! Cutie patootie.

And this sweetheart is beautiful inside and out. It was so fun to talk to her and learn about her friends and school and her favorite things.

She played a Minute to Win It game and I was her cheerleader. I yelled loudly at inopportune times. It was not what she was looking for!

We picked up some yummy dinner and continued the food fest we had going all day!

After dinner we went to see the bats. Isn't this a great picture. Family bonds are the best. You don't see someone for a long time and within minutes it is just like the old days.

The kids threw a football around while we waited for dusk.

We girls visited and enjoyed the awesome breeze and cooler weather.

No resemblance, right? NOT! These two are mirror images of each other!

And these two bear a striking resemblance. Funny how that gene pool business works isn't it?

Here they are again.

And again!

The stupid bats tricked us and were flying out the south end of the bridge while we were gabbing and yacking at the north end. When we finally noticed we jumped in the car and sped up and down the road trying to get a good look at them. It was a head out the window, bat hunting extravaganza and the kids loved it!

They left early this morning, shortly after we had an all out couch turning over, suitcase emptying, flashlight search for their missing car keys!

It was a wonderful visit. Just can't get over how easy we fell into great and comfortable conversation. How well the kids got along. It made me a little teary eyed to see them pull away this morning, but we vowed not to let it be so long between visits. In fact, we might have plans to see them in their neck of the woods next month!

We miss you A/C, Thrasher, LT and Red Bull! Hope to see you all very soon!

2 comments:

I absolutely love the pics! I just bought a huge new collage frame and some of these will definitely be included! I am going to miss you all so much but we as a family have vowed to see you often. Love to you all!!